1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to computer displays, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for providing a display interface utilizing a plurality of display states.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer screen displays are commonly used to display a wide variety of data and images. At present, several software applications display data and images in a manner that exceeds the viewing area of the screen display. Specifically, the output produced by these applications involves a substantial amount of data that occupies more screen area than is available. Alternatively, the output is in the form of images requiring a certain level of resolution and detail, which cause the image to extend beyond the normal viewing area.
Consequently, problematic scenarios, such as those mentioned above, have led to the development of various solutions that allow the user to view data and images that extend beyond the limited viewing area. However, many of these solutions fail to completely solve this problem. As such, users are prevented from seeing all of the data and/or image on the screen display at once. For instance, one such solution entails the use of vertical and horizontal scrollbars. More specifically, a large image display that exceeds the dimensions of the computer screen may be viewed by adjusting sliding scroll bars to move the image on the screen display relative to a display window. Although this solution does enable the user to view all the parts of the image, the user cannot observe the entire image at one time. Thus, the user is limited to viewing sections of the image that are as large as the viewing area of the screen display. In addition, this method can prove to be inconvenient and extremely unwieldy to use when trying to view large images and amounts of data.
Another method that addresses the viewing limitations is the zoom-out feature. Several applications provide the user with a zoom-out button, allowing the user to zoom out and view as much of the image as needed. Alternatively, some applications provide the user with a “best-fit” option where the application automatically adjusts the size of the image allowing the user to view the image in its entirety without the inconvenience of scrollbars. However, reducing an image in this manner, or via the zoom-out feature, is likely to compromise the resolution of the image or cause data to shrink to an unreadable size. Hence, using the “best-fit” and zoom-out options could likely be seen as ineffective solutions for certain images and data displays.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved method and apparatus for displaying large amounts of data on a computer display screen.